“You owe us for this”

She said as she patted the man on the shoulder with a big grin on her face, a grin that only annoyed the young man.

Or at least that’s what happened in Johnny’s head as the life drained from his eyes, Vlad's arm had pierced straight through his chest, and exited out the back.

Annabelle was on the floor pinned down with his foot, crushing her chest with considerable force and She made the conscious choice to remain still and not tempt the vampire into crushing her

Or perhaps she was stunned by the arm that was through Johnny’s chest and the fact that Lucy's head was twisted in a full 180° creating a sick image of her looking forward as if normal; the skin of her neck was stretched and twisted, with small bones peeking through the skin.

“Interesting dream you had there, but if you thought I would be such easy prey then death is the correct outcome for you”

Vlad spoke as he tossed the dead body to the side, letting it hit the ground with a dull *thud*

Annabelle’s shocked eyes moved to look at the body before turning to look at her foe.

“I would have thought you'd have stronger immunity to hypnosis, but a quick glance in my eyes and you friend was already under my illusion”

He said with disappointment in his tone, from what he was told of this S.E.E organisation, he expected more but then again this was his desired result, after all why should he expect any more from the weak.

‘I do hope they aren't all this weak’

He thought to himself, already contradicting his own feelings.

His eyes turned towards Annabelle looking her straight in the eyes and she looked back at him, but there was no fear in her eyes, despite both her comrades having been killed she had moved on from the shock and now looked at her foe with steel and fury in her eyes.

Vlad pursed his lips in contemplation, Valerie was the type to play with her food, something she claimed was beneficial to her as it made sure she never declined in strength, perhaps taking a page out of her book would serve him well.

Serve him well in the sense that he'll have something to look forward to in the future should everything else get a bit boring plus it will help him get a grasp of how powerful humans can get.

Using his foot, he lifted it off her chest before quickly stomping on her arm crushing her bones and eliciting a groan of pain from the woman beneath him.

“hm? I expected a scream but I suppose you've suffered enough injuries to tolerate a broken arm.”

He said with amusement in his tone before stepping off her arm taking steps back allowing her time to get back up.

Annabelle took the chance, rolled off the ground and stood on her feet, she kept her eyes on the vampire, her fury telling her to attack but she was not a fool. She knew full well she couldn't handle this alone however she had a single question in her mind.

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With the way his foot was pressed against her chest he could have killed her easily without any effort, just as he did with Lucy and Johnny so the question of why was she spared? came to her mind, what game was this creature playing?

“Why?”

However as she asked that, another figure emerged from within the forest.

“Don't try to find reason within their actions Annabelle, they're monsters, retreat”

Ruckfil spoke as he kneeled before Lucy's dead body and setting it on fire and moving to do the same with Johnny

“Pops what do you mean? I can't leave you here!”

She protested as she saw Johnny’s body catch fire, Ruckfil turned to her, his face solemn but stoic.

Vlad observed their interaction like an unconcerned third party.

“Don't worry kid, I won't die here, I have an ace up my sleeve, so Just retreat I'll make sure he doesn't pursue.”

“But–”

“Jesus Christ Annabelle!! Are you a child? Fucking run!”

He shouted with an explosive anger and slightly shocked Annabelle but with slight trepidation she heeded his command and took off into the forest, only taking a glance behind her as she ran full speed.

“There's little reason to worry, I was already planning to let her go.”

Vlad informed with slight amusement on his face, he could tell by the aura, the man was leaking that he was strong, what amused him was that the man was goading him into a silent battle.

“My name Adrian Alaric Ruckfil, a pleasure to meet you”

He introduced himself, a silent battle was essentially a battle of auras and to understand it one must understand what aura is.

Aura in the simplest terms was the objective danger you pose to any number of people mixed with your blood lust, objective danger means the amount of damage you can cause to people or property when at full strength without any aid from a third party, mix that up with your blood lust or your willingness to exercise your power to kill or cause damage and that equals aura.

To give an example it would be similar to seeing a thug at night, the fear you feel in their presence is their aura, because you are aware they can kill you and are most likely willing to kill you.

The average person can't control their aura because they're usually not aware of it, but with practice or innate talent one can easily control it without issue.

A silent battle is a battle of either trying to figure out how powerful someone is by leaking small amounts of your aura to prompt them to leak theirs and then go back and forth leaking greater and greater amounts of aura until you've gotten a good understanding of your opponent’s power.

Another form of silent battle is by fully releasing all your aura in one fell swoop, displaying your strength and power clearly and waiting to see if your opponent can match it.

This way of silent battle usually ends the fight before it begins because if someone has greater aura than you then you can't win against them of course this is not true for everyone but it holds true for the majority.

One can choose to forego the silent battle and just fight without revealing their aura at all.

“The pleasure is all mine Mr. Ruckfil, after all since I awoke I've been needing to exercise a bit, so this was quite a welcomed visit”

The vampire said with a small grin on his face, both his expression and face left Ruckfil feeling a twinge of anger both at this vampire, Alcina and himself.

The only reason he accepted this was because he needed the blood of a particularly powerful vampire, he wanted to find a way to gain greater strength without having to rely on the blessed contracts.

It would be a great boon to his family if he could be able to find alternatives to the contract and vampire blood was one of the ways he thought would be a solution,

And now thanks to his decision one of the best teams he has ever cultivated were practically toyed with and killed and the vampire had the nerve to call it exercise.

“I'm glad you managed to get some light exercise in, but would you be willing to allow me to leave?”

He asked curiously, the vampire was not responding to his attempts at a silent battle and the information Alcina gave him was incorrect as the file stipulated that this vlad was an A+ rank by the guild’s standards but that was false.

Unfortunately right now he couldn't get an accurate read on him so fighting was out of the question especially considering the vampire wasn't responding to his silent battle attempts.

“HAHA! fancy yourself a jester? why would I let such a thing happen?”

“Because it was Lady Alcina that sent me to you”

He said with an unmistaken confidence, He was certain that Alcina had some type of relationship with this vampire, otherwise why else would she want him dead? so he was taking a gamble right now, unfortunately if it works that means the thick vampire mommy will be on his ass.

Vlad's eyes squinted in suspicion, as he scrutinised his face, he didn’t particularly sense that the man was lying but if what he said is true then why would…

“Why would she do such a thing”

He asked, the suspicion still present on his face.

Ruckfil silently let out a sigh, this vampire said, “since I awoke” meaning it hadn't been active for a while.

“I tried refusing but I simply couldn't, she said you were at your weakest so it would be easier to kill you at this point in time”

“ah I see, so she's mad about that, typical Alcina”

‘She really was the type to lash out in such way when she's angry’

He thought with no small amount of fondness, Vlad figured she knew these people wouldn't be enough to kill him but it would be enough to let him know that she's angry at him.

“Where is she now?”

“Can you promise you'll allow us to retreat without you or anyone related/ working under you pursuing us, at least until we're out of this country?”

He asked, he might be asking too much but he knew it was best to be specific and leave no room for an interpretation.

“If you can give me information on her whereabouts then yes, you are free to retreat and I won't pursue.”

“Thank you”

And so Ruckfil divulged all the information he knew about Alcina’s whereabouts even mentioning the fact that she started her own blood farm.

....

A/N: Hope you enjoyed, leave a comment.